Florida Death Row Advocacy Group

Eight inmates refusing food at Florida State Prison

an Associated Press report 2/02/04

STARKE - Eight inmates on the disciplinary wing at Florida State Prison are waging a hunger strike over what they claim are basic human needs for recreation, decent food, visitation and access to canteen items. According to the Florida Department of Corrections, eight of the 24 inmates on Q wing are participating in the strike, which began Sunday. A statement released by the inmates through the Florida Death Row Advocacy Group, states: "On Feb. 1, the inmates housed on Q wing will begin a hunger strike in protest of the erroneous and unconstitutional conditions that we are being forced to endure. Those who are not participating are either mentally ill or in fear of retaliation from this administration." The inmates claim conditions of their confinement are violating their constitutional rights. Seven conditions are listed on their letter:

• They want to exercise once a week. They claim they are now only allowed to exercise once a month.
• The inmates want the right to receive books, magazines and newspapers and they are asking that radios be returned.
• The right to have visits and make telephone calls to family and friends.
• The inmates also claim they are not being adequately fed by Aramark, which has the contract for prison meals, and they often go to bed hungry. They would like to be able to buy food from the canteen.
• They claim that basic hygiene is being ignored and want to be able to buy shampoo, mouthwash and deodorant to kill body odor.
• They want warmer clothing in the winter months.
• They want the Florida Administrative Code enforced which states that maximum management is a temporary status.

Sterling Ivey, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Corrections, said the prison medical staff will monitor the condition of the prisoners participating in the hunger strike.

Q Wing is a group of 24 cells on the second and third floor of the prison directly above the execution chamber. It is designed for use by inmates who break prison rules. The wing, on the far north end of the prison, used to be known as X wing. Death row inmate Frank Valdes was on X wing when he was beaten to death on July 17, 1999. Four guards were acquitted in two trials in the death of Valdes. Prosecutors, fearing they could not get a fair jury in Bradford County, where the prison system is the biggest employer, dropped charges against other guards.

WHP CBS21 [NEWS] - about ARAMARK

January 30, 2004 7:18 PM

Officials are looking into whether a food service company is cutting back on the amount of food served to prisoners. Reporter Chris Schaffer has the exclusive story.

When inmates come to the Dauphin County Prison food service giant Aramark provides the food they eat. A few months ago county officials began looking into the company's books, as part of a contract renewal process. They saw documents including years of menus, instructions, and budgets.

Dauphin County Commissioner Jeff Haste:

"The numbers didn't quite match up - it appeared in our minds that we had been over-billed"

The county renewed its contract with Aramark. In early November, the prison went into a partial lock-down because of what the warden called "heightened tension levels" among inmates. At that time a corrections officer told WHP-CBS-21 that one factor leading to the increase in tension was that food portions appeared to be smaller.

Another source now says documents suggest that for years, inmate portions have been reduced or watered down to save money. Soon the investigation will go before a grand jury in Dauphin County.

A representative from Aramark would only say quote, "we did receive a request for information from the Dauphin County District Attorney's Office, and we are cooperating fully.

Commissioner Haste says the discrepancies he noticed could be accounting errors, but; "If in fact there's criminal intent I'm going to recommend we prosecute to the extent we can prosecute"

Aramark is a world-wide company, headquartered in Philadelphia. It provides food for sports stadiums, hospitals and universities in addition to more than 300 correctional facilities.

News From The inside

Hey again.

New Year, new hopes, new dreams, hopefully a year with more good-ness all around, we need it so desperately.

Hobby crafts

We have received quite a few letters regarding the hobby crafts, or lack of same, and I will respond here so you all can see and don't need to write us about it. We are aware. When I had the meeting with Secretary Crosby in late December this issue was of course one that I brought up.

The end result, as far as I understood, was that Mr. Crosby asked Director Carter to look into it and get back with him so we could get some answers. Apparently the whole thing is still a rule proposal with no decisions made, and it has been for a few years. Since the holidays are barely over I wanted to wait at least till mid February to ask if there is anything new. Please know that we are aware and would love nothing more than to see the hobby crafts back in there. We have requested a new meeting.

Speaking of hobby crafts…

Chinese Orphanage

Letters have been sent to about 20 of you - asking for artwork, and these letters were sent to those we knew had artistic skills, - every one are of course more than welcome to help out, we just didn't know/remembered more at the time...….

We have gotten a chance to help decorate an orphanage in China. With only 20 kids, - Kids who have absolutely nothing - as in nothing- as in way less than you even have. And that includes any kind of decorations on the walls.

The place is dirty and stinking and gray in gray. The kids never get a hug from no one (and if they do they can't handle it emotionally, they weep endlessly) they do not own a single piece of toy. And if they did it would be stolen from them, as they don't even have a locker or a place that is their own.

Anyway, since it is my sister who goes there and see it with her own eyes, we talked about getting some colors, or at least some drawings with "children themes" on, made by those of you who have the skills. We could then have them framed and shipped so they reached their destination.

It would be possible for us to "blow up" your art work, so you don't have to draw big ones and use the little color you may have left, and we can even sent back the original if you wish…

Since these kids have even less than any of you, and you have the time and the talent, well,, why not help out and give those kids something nice to look at? And if we at some point get the hobby craft back then….? These kids don't even have a blanket or a pillow of their own. So anything with a bit of color would do wonders. And for anyone else who wish to participate-, anything would help- a few stamps, a few dollars, a picture and a short note…whatever you can think of to brighten up their day. Thanks J

As I am writing this, answers are coming back - yes we will provide an envelope where your artwork wont be bend, and postage enclosed to send it to us priority. So when you have something ready just let us know and it will be on the way.

This and that..

How is the food situation? We have heard from a few of you who have had another encounter with the "Aramark Special" but having it diagnosed as "the flu" .

SURE! File and file again.! Also, we seem to exsperience a lot of returned mail, delayed mail, missing mail… is that a problem inside too?

Seems like some enterpret the rules different from others in the mail room, and the result is mail being returned that really shouldn't have been, and it is pretty expensive too.

This goes for the newsletter to FSP also. We know it is send to all of you, still we keep hearing you don't get it. It would be helpful if you would tell us and even send grievances so we can complain in the right manner.

We are trying something new this month. And will se if it has any interest. We are dedicating a page for relatives and penfriend to write to/for. To express how it feels to have a loved one on DR.

Guess that is it from here,- we did get the newsletter out to ALL in january, and we hope this can continue.. you can of course write to us if you do not wish to receive it, but please don't write if you want to help us save the expense.

The goal is that the newsletter can be sent to your friends and family so they too can see what is going on and maybe get involved. If it turns out the expensense is too much we will have to go back to the sharing, but now we will do it this way.

Take care, keep believing in miracles and a better tomorrow.

Hannah

PS. Please bear with me. I am WAY behind in answering letters.L

As confirmed on other pages the men on Q wing at FSP have started a hunger strike as of February first, and will continue until something is done about the conditions there. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. We can all be with them in spirit and may God give them peace of mind and the strength and wisdom to do the right thing….

Good news. We finally have a good hearted soul to correspond with those of you interested in sharing your faith in Jesus. Thanks to Chris.

A Few Words From Abe

A few words from Abe Bonowitz before he goes on a tour with Juan Melendez all over the states. They wont be back again until April. Hopefully they will open eyes and hearts, and change minds as they speak to all who is willing to listen. We wish them a safe and blessed trip.

The article below needs no introduction,

except to say:

I pity the guards who participated in this extermination. None of them will ever forget, and few if any will participate in another execution ritual. They are scarred for life. The State of Ohio is scarred as well. This story jumped from being page 12B to the front page, across the globe. Public education is the tool. Reaching more people is the challenge. We each make the most of what we've got, nonviolently, and in a loving way, of course. Hang in there…Abe -

OHIO:

Williams Execution Timeline

Lewis Williams, executed Wednesday for the 1983 fatal robbery of a Cleveland woman, struggled and pleaded for help from the moment the execution process began. He was the 1st inmate to struggle since Ohio resumed executions in 1999.

A timeline:

• 9:51 a.m. Movement detected around the preparation table in a room next to the death chamber, as seen through two video monitors. It is the 1st time in 9 executions that the preparation process was viewed by witnesses.
• 9:52 a.m. Members of the 12-person execution team forcibly lift Williams from his knees and pry his hand off the edge of the preparation table. Williams' mother, Bonnie Williams, 66, of Columbus, sobs as she watches from a witness room. There were no witnesses for the victim, Leoma Chmielewski.
• 9:54 a.m. At least nine members of the team work to restrain a struggling Williams with a series of straps. Williams, yelling and shaking his head, repeatedly strains to lift himself up.
• 9:56 a.m. Williams continues to struggle and shout. One guard standing by his head alternately restrains him and pats his right shoulder to comfort him.
• 10:02 a.m. The shunts are successfully placed on the inside of Williams' forearms above the elbow. Williams has stopped shouting but continues to speak, often in a type of chant that is not audible.
• 10:03 a.m. The straps are taken off and Williams, his body drooping, is carried into the execution chamber by four guards. He yells, "I'm not guilty, I'm not guilty, God, please help me," as 7 guards strap him down.
• 10:06 a.m. A member of the execution team enters the chamber and attaches the tubes carrying the lethal chemicals to the shunts in Williams' arms.
• 10:07 a.m. Williams is asked for a last statement. "God, please help me, God, please hear my cry," he said. James Haviland, warden of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, gives a signal not visible to witnesses to start the flow of chemicals.
• 10:08 a.m. After continuing to cry out and yell, Williams abruptly stops speaking as the chemicals apparently take effect. The sobbing of his mother grows much louder.
• 10:14 a.m. Haviland orders the curtains drawn between the chamber and the witness room.
• 10:15 a.m. Haviland reopens the curtains and declares the time of death as 10:15 a.m.

(Source: Associated Press)

Opinions and expressions from OUT - mates

Johnny Robinson

- By Dianne Abshire

I'm afraid I don't have much in the way of up-beat commentary this month. By the time this newsletter is distributed to most of you, February 4th will have come and gone, and the fate of our friend Johnny Robinson will be decided. We can only pray that justice is done, but we all know the odds aren't in his favor. If he is taken from us, a major miscarriage of justice will be carried out. In the words of Michael Radelet, renown sociologist and expert on capital punishment, if the planned execution of Johnny Robinson takes place, it will be, "one of the very most horrendous miscarriages of justice that I have seen anywhere in my 25 years in the business."

This observation is based on documented facts: Robinson was tried and convicted by an all-white jury for the murder of a white woman, Beverly St. George. The prosecutor, Steve Alexander, a racist by reputation, spoon fed his desired version of the murder to a then 16 year old mentally retarded child named Clinton Fields who was with Robinson at the time of the killing, was forced into signing a confession in 1985, and is now describing how he was pressured and bullied into signing what he knew was not the truth. In 1985 as a16 year old mentally retarded boy, Clinton Fields was believable. As a man in 2004, the adult Fields' recantation was dismissed by State prosecutors who continue to uphold his 1985 testimony as the truth, despite solid evidence to the contrary.

The tragic reality is that discrimination is still alive and well in our country. The case of Johnny Robinson is a prime example of the ills propagated by a biased and unfair judicial system that refuses to fix itself. Couple this accepted racism with the ineffective counsel of over a dozen attorneys who have represented Johnny Robinson over the years in a deliberate revolving-door method of replacement, and Johnny Robinson's death is inevitable.

1985 Florida was a racist environment where fear of repercussion drove Johnny Robinson to panic at the accidental shooting of a woman not of his race. Even more tragic is that in 2004, we can't get past these events placed into motion by racism and racist participants. We are unwilling to accept that racism played a part in unfair sentencing. In 2004 Dr. Radelet can still find new statistical evidence that courtroom racism still presides in St. Johns County. In the 7th Judicial Circuit, apparently the color of one's skin matters when determining who lives and who dies.

Our hearts go out to all of you who call Johnny "friend," both in-mates and out-mates.

Birthdays, announcements etc…

February Birthdays Congratulations! David Cook Thomas Knight Gary Whitton Gerald Murray Eric Branch Kenneth Quince Paul Everett Dwayne Parker Richard Hamilton Anthony Spann Dusty Spencer Duane Owen John Huggins George Porter Antonio Carter William Thompson Kayle Bates Byron Bryant Ronnie Johnson Kenneth Watson Dennis Sochor Paul Brown Ronald Williams John Ferguson Gregory Kokal Thomas Gudinas Michael Tanzi

A story of St. Valentine In ancient Rome, savage wolves traversed the nearby woods. The Romans called upon Lupercus, a Roman God, to banish the wolves. The Romans would hold a yearly festival to honor Lupercus on February 15th. One of the traditions of the festival took place on the eve of the festival, February 14th. The names of the Roman girls were written on pieces of paper. The young men would draw the name of a girl and she would become his sweetheart for the year. According to legend, a priest by the name of Valentine was ordered to die by Claudius II, simply for marrying Roman soldiers. Claudius had ordered the soldiers not to marry. Apparently he never heard the saying "make love, not war". Valentine was put to death on February 14th, the eve of the festival. He was then canonized and in honor and celebration of Valentine......... St. Valentine's Day!

What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 50?
Your Honor.

What's the difference between God and a lawyer?
God doesn't think he's a lawyer.

Giving birth is like taking your lower lip and forcing it over your head.
-Carole Burnett

I only drink to steady my nerves. Sometimes I'm so steady I don't move for months.
-W. C Fields

If ignorance ever goes to $40 a barrel, I want drilling rights on George Bush's head.
-Jim Hightower, 1988

Americans always try to do the right thing -- after they've tried everything else.
-Winston Churchill

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence to never practice either of them.
-Mark Twain (about America)

I was so drunk last night I fell down and missed the floor.
-Dean Martin

If you ever see me getting beaten by the police, put down the video camera and come help me.
-Bobcat Goldthwait

If your eyes hurt after you drink coffee, you have to take the spoon out of the cup.
-Norm Crosby

Art, Poetry and opinions from IN - mates

Death Row Tha Motha Fuckin Truth

I'm innocent, I'm not supposed to be here…
Because I am innocent I thought I had nothing to fear…
My lawyer slept in court, stayed drunk, and his breath reeked of weed and beer…
Poor, black, uneducated, an all white Jury should I fear…
My mother stood crying in court - I shed not a damn tear…
I lost my initial appeal then CCRC filed a notice to appear…
Damn I am in trouble now I must hold hope and faith near…
I received a letter from my woman, she said…dear…
The damn food is always cold…
The laundry is torn, dirty, and old…
The cells are nasty…
The pigs love to lie on me…
It is hot as hell…
The showers smell…
The 1996 death penalty act left us half dead…
Clemency is a damn joke to fuck with your head…
Registry appointed counsel is full of gas…
Jeb Bush murderer of women and children you are an ass…
We go to the law library and cant get any assistance…
We can't write free people for help, love, or support - this is nonsense
Ask Valdez isn't it legal for pigs to stump us to death in the cell…
Frank Smith an innocent man died in this hell…
Michael coleman has DNA evidence that proves he should be free…
The chaplain refused to send me cards because I used my real name Saifullah, damn Satan, Saifullah is me…
The state murdered Dez, Alma'ad, Shango, KC, knowing that they were not guilty…
I'm an illiterate retard so what the fuck do you think they will do to me…
This is death row tha motha fuckin' truth…

Submitted by Saifullah Yhuh UCI

"Death will set me free"

Alone in this cage, nothing here
Only desolation, loneliness, and fear
Take my life, take my freedom
As they are; I don't need e'm
Pain permeates, deep inside of me
And all around as well
The lies, wrap themselves around me
My existence has become a living hell.
Believe what you will
It doesn't matter to me
Keep smiling as you kill
Death will set me free.

Poem and drawing submitted by Anthony LaMarca UC

Judges to rule on heat level of Death Row

U.S. judges will decide if high humidity levels and summer heat topping 95 degrees inside the state's death row amounts to a constitutional violation.

A panel of 3 federal appellate judges is weighing arguments about whether extreme summer heat and humidity on Florida's death row constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment."

At issue: If inmates are suffering because of indoor temperatures exceeding 95 degrees and a poor ventilation system at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, is this an Eighth Amendment violation?

Elliot Scherker, an attorney with Greenberg Traurig representing the inmates, said Monday that the misery caused by the heat was just such a violation and that airflow should be improved.

But Caryl Kilinski, assistant state attorney general, said that misery was not enough to constitute "cruel and unusual punishment." The suffering, she said, had to be quantified by tangible, serious illness. Appellate Judge Rosemary Barkett asked Kilinski, "How can you require people to be totally miserable as long as there's no heart attack or brain tumor?" Kilinski, echoing the lower court decision of the late Ralph W. Nimmons Jr., a U.S. District Court judge, replied that "a risk of harm has to be shown."

Barkett said that she "didn't read it [the Eighth Amendment] that way."

In 2003, Nimmons ruled in favor of Kilinski and the Florida Department of Corrections, saying that despite a "restrictive and harsh" environment caused by the indoor heat and an admission by a corrections supervisor that the ventilation system "had trouble keeping up," the situation did not amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

To get through the summer, inmates on death row at UCI stand in their toilets, sleep on the concrete floors of their cells and wrap themselves in wet sheets.

A UCI psychologist said that she found it ''difficult to breathe" when she entered the unit.

But the problem "is not of constitutional magnitude," Kilinski insisted. The panel of appellate judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit -- Rosemary Barkett, Gerald Tjoflat and Eugene Siler - are expected to make a decision by late spring, before temperatures at UCI climb back into the 90s.

(source: Miami Herald)

More abut the hungerstrike

State touts early savings of privatizing death cases

By Jim Ash, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's experiment to privatize the legal process that ushers condemned killers from Death Row to the execution chamber -- or freedom -- may be showing early signs of saving taxpayers money. Relying on private attorneys to defend some of Florida's Death Row inmates instead of using public defenders will save more than $2 million this year, state officials project.

"This is what the figures are showing," said Roger Maas, executive director of the Commission on Capital Cases. But critics say there hasn't been enough time to evaluate the success of what is supposed to be a three-year experiment.

"I think part of the problem you have with that is it's really something that is going to be hard to project," said Neal Dupree, a capital collateral regional attorney who faced the possible elimination of his job one year ago, when Gov. Jeb Bush released a bare-bones budget that proposed saving $9.3 million by eliminating the state's three Offices of Capital Collateral Regional Counsels. "You haven't lived until the day you wake up and see a big zero next to your agency's budget," Dupree said.

The offices, begun in 1985 to hasten the death row appeals process, are made up of 50 full-time attorneys paid by the state to represent death row inmates in their post-conviction appeals. Instead, Bush wanted to use defense lawyers from a list of private attorneys who are willing to accept a cap of $84,000 per case and a rate of $100 an hour. Lawmakers, including Bush's fellow Republicans, balked. A compromise was reached that eliminated only the North Florida region of the counsels and transferred its 64 cases to private attorneys. The north region office was eliminated June 30, wiping out its $3.2 million budget. Two of the cases landed in the lap of another region; private attorneys picked up the rest. In an interim report that is based on seven months of data and that has yet to be released, Maas predicts that the private attorneys in the north region will file only about $1 million in legal bills with the state. That puts the projected savings at potentially more than $2 million this year.

But Dupree, who serves in the state's southern capital collateral counsels region, says costs could grow exponentially as private attorneys take on more cases. Plus, Dupree said, the interim report doesn't take into account the fact that judges are allowed to increase the amount of money the private attorneys are paid, regardless of the state mandates, if the lawyers can demonstrate unusual circumstances. He also said the simple cost accounting says nothing about the quality of the work being done on a defendant's behalf or the speed at which the private attorneys have been able to do their jobs.

"It's nice to say there is a projected savings, but what has happened to these cases? If you're getting no movement in them, where's the bang for your buck?" The Capital Commission acknowledges it has not compared how quickly private attorneys are doing the work compared to their regional counselbrethren. But some state legislators said they were encouraged by the Capital Commission's projections.

"I'm pleasantly surprised. While I was hopeful, quite frankly, I was skeptical," said Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, who helped negotiate the compromise. Others remain skeptical of the privatization effort. It's "dumbing down the appellate process," said Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, a former federal prosecutor who supports the death penalty but is an ardent foe of dismantling the Capital Collateral Regional Counsels network. Collateral reviews of death row cases, considered the most complex area of criminal law, begin only after a defendant has exhausted his direct appeals.

Post-conviction petitions are usually based on the narrow grounds of new evidence, ineffective trial counsel, misconduct by prosecutors, faulty or recanted eyewitness accounts or a defendant's retardation or other mental incapacity.

Collateral reviews amount to starting the criminal case all over again, often requiring thousands of hours to review tens of thousands of pages of court documents and re-interview crucial witnesses. The state registry, which now includes 147 private attorneys, was originally created to give judges a place to go when a Capital Collateral Regional Counsels office became overloaded or had to turn down a defendant because of a potential conflict of interest. To qualify for the state registry, attorneys need only minimal experience, including a continuing education course on capital cases and a record of having tried at least five felony cases. In comparison, most Capital Collateral Regional Counsels attorneys have been trying these complicated cases for years. "If they make mistakes," Gelber said of the private attorneys, "we have to reload and start from scratch. It's a relatively small amount of money to save when you risk so much in the long term." Critics of the death penalty also are not impressed by the early returns. "It becomes a question of what lawyers are willing to do the work and at what cost. Some will do it because it's close to their heart," said Abraham Bonowitz, director of the Jupiter-based Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. "Others will do enough work to satisfy the bill that the state is willing to pay." The latter will ultimately lead to increased mistakes in the death row appeals process and the eventual execution of innocent defendants, Bonowitz said. Since the death penalty was reinstated in Florida in 1979, 24 Death Row inmates have been exonerated. Bonowitz called the privatization experiment "bogus" when compared with a calculation made by The Palm Beach Post in 2000 that eliminating the death penalty altogether and substituting life in prison without parole would save the state $51 million a year. "If they really want to save money, they will eliminate the death penalty," he said.

"What they are doing is putting innocent lives at risk and they are putting the reputation of the state at risk, and what have they accomplished?" Bush is expected to introduce his budget for 2004 today, and it remains to be seen whether he will again push to eliminate the remaining regional counsels. A spokesman did not respond to requests for an interview. But even Crist, a Bush supporter, said he would not go along with speeding up the experiment." There just hasn't been enough time to decide," Crist said.

Winners of the book drawing January 2004

Randy Schoenwetter FSP
The Visitation by Frank Peretti

Lancelot Armstrong UCI
Evil in Modern Thought, Susan Neiman

Michael Rivera UCI
Conversos, Inquisition by Norman Roth

Timothy Robinson UCI
Destruction of the Black civilization by Chancelor Williams

James Ducket FSP
Ultimate Punishment by Scott Turow

Franklin Floyd UCI
Rising Tide by Gary Weir /Walter Boyne
From a Buick 8 by Stephen king

Jim Rose UCI
Runaway Jury by Grisham
Four Blind Mice by Patterson

FDRAG Share-a-Book Program

Each month, FDRAG will collect book wishes from the readers of our Newsletter.

In order to submit a book wish, simply fill out the form below, send it to FDRAG and your book may be one of the 10 book titles which will be drawn each month, and purchased via Amazon.com.

Because we want this program to benefit as many as possible on our shoe-string budget we ask that you pass on your book when you're done reading it.

Share-A-Book Name: DOC:                                              Housing: Author: Title:

FDRAG & MEMBERSHIP

This group is created by families and friends of death row inmates in Florida. It is a given that this group is against Capital punishment. It is however, not the purpose for this group to do anti-death penalty work, instead this group concentrates on making the living conditions for death row inmates tolerable. We also commit to work on making changes that will improve the quality of living in that particular environment called Death Row, and to help keeping the standard that already exists. Everyone who is willing to work for basic human rights is welcome. If you are looking for a group who does anti-death penalty work, we suggest you join one of the excellent groups already up and running. For further information please contact a member near you:

USA

Hannah Floyd, (Can be contacted for info on newsletter, membership, visiting, places to stay, transport etc.)
137 N Walnut St, #14
Starke, FL 32091
E-mail: Hannahfloyd@yahoo.com
Tel: 904-964-4303 or 904 964 7303

Janice Figueroa
1120 Wild Oak Terrace
Deland, FL. 32720
E-mail: Tfigu@aol.com
Tel: 386-738-3968

Karin Elsea, (Contact person for the DC/Maryland area)
1400 East West Highway, #710
Silver Spring, MD 20910
E-mail: Karinelsea@hotmail.com
Tel: 301-565-3246

Dianne Abshire
9673 State Rt 65
Ottawa, OH 45875
E-mail: afua@woh.rr.com
Tel: 419-523-5816
(Can also be contacted re: legal matters for the attention of Florida Support Group)

The Netherlands

Jolanda Arends, Treilerstraat 168
NL - 1503 JM Zaandam
E-mail: jolanda-arends@zonnet.nl
Tel: +31-75-616-4862
(FDRAG membership and info pack)